2012 Periodic Table of DMOs

A couple years ago inspiration struck when I applied the concept of the periodic table of elements to the Microsoft SQL Server’s Dynamic Management Objects, which Louis Davidson and I wrote about in our 2010 bo0k: Performance Tuning with SQL Server Dynamic Management Objects. Times change, the SQL Server product changes (well, not those shortcomings in the GUI I need to start raising a stink about) and the DMO Periodic Table needs to change as well.

Though the DMOs’ naming conventions lead you to believe they’re organized I beg to differ. It’s not a shortcoming by the product group – these objects tell multiple stories and therefore the naming conventions (sys.dm_exec | os | db | tran | xe | hadr | server | io | logpool | cryptographic | clr | filestream | fts | tcp | cdc | broker | audit | repl_<dynamic_management_object_name>may pertain to one use for the object, but most-likely not the main use of the object. I took great care in reorganizing the Dynamic Management Objects into a structure I think is more appropriate.

Next week I’ll be presenting on the subject of the Periodic Table of Dynamic Management Objects and how to use the DMOs to baseline CPU, RAM and IO consumption on your various SQL Server instances at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Summit in Charlotte, NC. I invite you to join me and in the meantime please feel free to download a printable copy of the Periodic Table of Dynamic Management Objects. The full size version is actually 3000 x 4800 but production of a high-quality offset printing version is too costly to fund at this time.